The Barricade

[Karcentric]

Rusty Arrived at the barricade with no fuse, he sat on a crate and waited for the other bandits to arrive and also guard. "Great, I better not be the only one here." Rusty checked all the hiding areas the bandits used to setup ambushes with, to rob loners who strayed into the garbage. Rusty began pulling apart an old truck engine to kill time. "No one else?" He wondered to himself. Before immersing himself in his work.

After an hour Rusty looked up, dragging himself back to reality. "This is bullshit, where the hell is everyone?" He yelled, he got up and looked around. "I'll go see what's happening at the train depot" He muttered as he jogged towards the train depot, avoiding the the anomalies he at the entrance, he peeked his head in.

Several bandits and loners lay sprawled about the area "So this is why no one came to the barricade" He said, checking for valuables Rusty noticed that most of the weapons were in terrible condition, not worth carrying around, he found one Walker P9M in reasonable condition. He meandered back to the barricade to wait out his shift.

[Karcentric]

Rusty checked his PDA it was time for him to go back to the base, he stood up stretching. He climbed up onto a high viewpoint and swept the area with his binoculars, on the highest zoom setting he could only just see a giant man standing, waiting for something. He couldn't make out anything else. Was he waiting for someone?

Without a second thought Rusty turned and sprinted back towards the base, if he got there in time they could set up an ambush. He ran all the way back to the Dark Valley despite the burning in his chest.

[Διμι]

Lutiy pulled back out of the shadows of the catwalks in the train depot when the fellow bandit had finally left. The stash of intact weapons remained safe inside the privy structure outside. He almost felt bad about cheating his comrade out of a reasonable amount of loot he could have easily shared. Then he remembered why it was he got his nickname. Although he maintained a considerable reputation amongst even the best of the bandits, he generally trusted no one, not even his so-called 'brothers'. Yes, he thought, his initial mistake didn't need to be proven twice.

He peeked out of the depot once the rookie bandit exited. He walked out calmly, no one to be seen in the vicinity. He was not worried about traveling alone; most of the mutants and stalkers and even squads traversing the Garbage these days usually proved to be easy pickings for him all by himself.

He climbed into one of the trees near the depot, his tan brown trench coat masking him perfectly with the tree's trunk, making him nearly invisible at a glance. Through his binoculars he could see the the bandit poking about in something near the barricades. The man wore a balaclava, making it difficult to place his age and looks, although his equipment left no doubt as to his rank. Lutiy settled into a more comfortable position. It would be a while before anyone he could loot wandered into his sight radius.

Soon enough, however, the crook in the balaclava near the barricades roused himself from his seemingly routine task of tinkering away with a piece of equipment. The man peered intently at a point in the distance through his binoculars before running off towards the Dark Valley. Lutiy shifted, aiming his binoculars towards the area the bandit was examining. In the far distance, he could see several specks making their way down the road from the Cordon.

Today was his lucky day, Lutiy thought! Two groups to loot in one day was quite a catch. The rookie bandit would no doubt be back with a full force promptly. He looked back at the privy with the stash in it. It contained a Stalker Suit, Abakan, two MP5's, and an HPSA pistol, all of them in good condition and with considerable amounts of ammo. It would be safe, he decided. There wasn't much of a chance of a stalker discovering it before he was through anyway.

Lutiy slid down from the tree and made his way towards the barricades.

[Karcentric]

Jogging back to the barricade Rusty saw a man standing at them already, he didn't look like a loner, his appearance suggested a bandit who had sent a good amount of time in the zone. "Erm, who are you?" Rusty asked nervously, "Are you here to help ambush that guy I spotted? He looked rather tall."

Knowing he was rambling Rusty composed himself and said slightly less shaky "We should get ready, but I'll let you to organize this ambush." He said to the man who was taller by a few inches.

[Stojespal]

Easy to mistake for a barrel of methane, Burilgi for his part kept quiet, shuffling around the barricade with a palm resting on his satchel like a pommel. His opinions of the gargantuan man were undeveloped, so he gave no more thought to the matter.

[Διμι]

"Zdorova bratany!" Lutiy exclaimed with warm affectation. Calmly he looked around. The men seemed to be all rookies, although there were quite a few. He counted eight heads in total, including balaclava man. Taking out his binoculars, he checked the road. He could see the intruders more clearly, and there were five. Of them four loners, seemingly rookies, although some wore fairly heavy protective armor, and a single massive figure he could not mistake for anyone else.

Goddammit, Lutiy cursed. Why did Rurik, of all people, have to be involved? He had met with the Dutier at Rostok, and the two had some fair talks throughout the past year and knew each other fairly well. He couldn't afford to reveal himself to the man, or else all his reputation would be gone to waste. At the same time, he could not lose ground in front of his bandit friends and back out of this. Finally, he reached a decision.

"The two of you" he pointed to the balaclava wearing bandit, and the quiet, stocky Eastern-looking man beside him "go behind that hill alongside the road. The rest of you" he motioned for the six remaining bandits, "stay here, and take positions at the barricade. I'll climb the lookout tower and hide there, and start picking off the loners when they come close enough" he patted the scope on his modified rifle.

He turned to Barrel and Balaclava, who were about to depart for the hill. "Once we start shooting, get over that hill and blast them from the back! That way, they'll have nowhere to run" Lutiy concluded. "Alright everyone!" he shouted, "let's get this over with!" he grinned a little inside. Those bandits had no idea what was coming to them.

[Stojespal]

At the fore of the barricade by then, Burilgi was peering across to Lutiy when the man addressed he and Rusty. With a sparkle in his eye he nods to the suggestion of circling the hill; such a mobile way of thinking came naturally to him. The squat fellow drew his shotguns, one and then the other, breaking them open and ensuring the shells looked good as the tall bandit went over the plan.

Like a drunken hooligan (not that he isn't), Burilgi jogged with a wobbling swagger around the rear of the hill. As the man passed, for passing Burilgi at a trot is as natural as breathing, the kipchak grunted, "Him, I like."

[chaosshade]

After passing through the gate to the Garbage, Chaos pulled out his binoculars and looked around a little, keeping close to his companions and pausing every now and then to look at the heaped up junk and the huge and unruly collection of whirlgigs, and a type he'd not seen before, which he concluded to be a vortex. He made a mental note to find a few in a less hostile environment to do a little experimenting at a later date.

He began paying more attention to the path and navigating his way around the abandoned vehicles with his friends. "So besides the anomolies and radiation, is there anything interesting in the Garbage, Rurik?" Chaos asked, watching a pack of blind rat-dogs run through a field. Always wondered why The Zone spawned things like that... perhaps I should go take my questions to the Ecologists... he thought, looking around in a combination of excitement, curiosity, and nervousness.

He noticed a few stalkers in the distance dressed in a black top and randomly colored pants. He grew more nervous, the few experienced stalkers that had come through the garbage to the cordon before making their way out of The Zone had talked about a very heavy bandit presence in the garbage, especially around the vehicle depot... which they were passing by.

"Rurik... when are we going to meet up with more of your Duty buddies?" the loner asked, looking around nervously.

[Διμι]

Walking along on the Dutier's left, Victor flipped the safety lever on his AKSU to full auto. He didn't like the shifting black figures ahead. Eventually, all of them disappeared out of sight. The loner's instincts told him that they were walking directly into an ambush. He checked his grenade pockets and side holster, despite his doubt that the silenced PB1s would be of any use here. The other rookies, particularly Chaos, were getting noticeably nervous, as was he.

Neither could he shake the feeling that despite the disappearance of the stalkers ahead, something or someone was watching the group from the side. A quick, circumspect look revealed no one on the hills or piles of junk around them, however, and did little to assuage his anxiety.

---

Lutiy saw the loners begin to shift about nervously as they approached. No doubt the rookie bandits hadn't done nearly as good of a job of concealing themselves as he had hoped. He flicked his AKM's setting to semi-automatic, his share of loot for the day was about to double. He shifted unnoticeably, making sure he had a good view of the barricades while remaining invisible to the stalkers on the road.

[Karcentric]

Rurik answered Chaos first, "you'll find more artifacts here, check any chest or crates also, plenty of stashes around here, we'll be at the Duty base by nightfall." to Rurik's left Victor seemed troubled by something, looking ahead he saw several figures disappear.

"Gentlemen, it seems we've been spotted, fall in, I'll stand in front, Victor, Chaos keep your eyes on the hills, Harmund and Sigbrand, keep a watch behind, these guys will wait till we are surrounded before moving in, then it will unfold in 2 ways, they will order us to hand over our items or they will open fire." Thinking about which would be the more likely option wasn't something Rurik wanted to consider, he could out shoot a whole patrol of bandits, and take multiple shots without noticing, but the loners were his concern and it was duty to protect them, he had told them he was going to get them to the base, and he planed on accomplishing that.

"As soon as you see them, shoot them. Be ready they" Rurik warned, lifting his gun ready to unleash on whoever was waiting ahead.

---

Rusty went with Burilgi as he was instructed he was quietly confident about the ambush, despite a dutier being involved. "Well buddy," he said to Burilgi, "looks like we'll have plenty of loot soon, and maybe some new guns."

[Stojespal]

"What we do," Burilgi grunted to his newfound pal (for now), "I come around hill. Krakow, Krakow!" The man made pistol motions with both hands. "You shoot over hill, pshoo pshoo pshoo." More pistol motions, there. "Then fast, roll down hill, and come around bottom, dju-dju-dju-dju." He shook and held his arms up as if firing a rifle on burst. "I come around from partway up hill. They hear three kind weapons, from four different place. Am think, 'are four men!'" Baring a set of crooked, chipped, and otherwise terrible teeth, the Tatar's grin held more malignant menace than an old trenchgun.

[Διμι]

Lutiy watched as the two bandits slowly crept up to the tip of the hill. The group of stalkers had stopped, arranging themselves in defensive formation. Two of the loners covered the rear, two flanked the Dutier, while the latter faced the barricade directly.

Two more bandits rose from the barricade, MP5's cocked. "Alright friara," one began. He never finished, instead choking on his own words as Rurik's PKM burst nearly tore him in half. The second dropped back behind the barricade for cover. Instantly, the area erupted in chaotic gunfire.

Lutiy didn't waste the opportunity, putting his plan into action. Firming up his grip on his rifle, he caught the head of the first bandit below in his sights. Without hesitation he pulled the trigger, compensators in his rifle dampening the recoil. The concrete slab behind the bandit's head was instantly painted with red blood and pinkish brain matter. Two more bandits went down in the same fashion before his accomplices realized that they had been pinned by their supposed leader. The two remaining blackguards at the barricade dove for cover, taking several bursts at the lookout tower with no avail. Lutiy had already crept out of their sight.

---

Victor whipped around when he heard the deafening roar of Rurik's machine gun fire. He saw the bandit fall back in a spray of blood as the concrete shields around him exploded into small fragments. Before he could react, shooting erupted from the side of the barricades.

The loner instantly went prone, minimizing his profile, but the fight seemed to be over as soon as it had started. He could see two more black forms fall down violently ahead, shot in the head by some unseen assailant. Rurik's gun kept firing, keeping any survivors down behind cover.

He saw a flash of black movement on the hill to his right. He let off a wildly inaccurate burst of 5.45 round as he turned around, but the intruder had disappeared behind the hill again.

[Zeno, Lord Camelith]

Harmund heard the thuderous report from Rurik's PKM and Almost instictivley pulled his brother behind him. Handing Sigbrand his TOZ and taking his brothers more accurate AKs-74u/2, Harmund quickly kneeled, pushing his brother flat, and began to check the surrouding area. Time seemed to slow for Harmund, he was aware of Rurik spitting an unyeilding spray of 7.62x54mm rounds at the bandits in front of them. Holding his brother down with one hand, and pressing the wire-frame stock of the 74u pressed against his shoulder Harmund noticed two figures on top of the hill to his right. "Keep them from coming around from behind," said Harmund, and let off a burst of 5.45 rounds at the crest of the hill.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sigbrand rose to a crouching position after most of the gunfire had stopped, his brother was standing up, but was pointing his rilfe at the hill to their right. He heard another defaning burst from Rurik's PKM, glancing over at the barricade Sigbrand muttered, "Any Idea how many are left?"

[Karcentric]

Rurik paused from firing, someone had to be behind the bandits. Thinking of the surrounding hills, he drew his USP aiming at where the loners were looking, "If any of you have a grenade, now would be an opportune moment to use it. Throw it that way" Rurik instructed, pointing one way, "And I'll go over the hill this side, hopefully cornering them."

"One of you watch the barricade, if you see movement fire, obviously they are caught between 2 hostile parties and don't know where to turn."

---

Rusty tried to figure out what he'd just heard, it was rambling, choosing not to offend the man he agreed without the slightest clue of what was said. "Ok let's do that!" He exclaimed, the sudden explosion of noise made Rusty duck involuntarily, he heard several men cry out as they were hit. Before Rusty or his companion could move a grenade landed nearby. "SHIT!! RUN!!"

[Stojespal]

With a face like he'd seen a lion and really wanted to get in the car, Burilgi was already unnerved by the screams responding to gunfire which were coming from the wrong direction. Whether he even saw the grenade or just reacted to the scream he'll never know, but the horseman loped off in a waddling gate that belied a considerable speed.